The cycle begins again 

After harvest wraps up, irrigators hope for snow 

By SARA HOTTMAN

H&N Staff Reporter

October 26, 2010

H&N file photo by Andrew Mariman  Upper Klamath Lake can hold 523,700 acre-feet of water. Greg Addington, director of the Klamath Water Users Association, says a full delivery of surface water for farmers in a dry year exceeds 400,000 acre-feet

   At least 75 percent of the summer water supply comes from winter snowpack, said Jon Lea, National Resource Conservation Service snow survey supervisor for Oregon. As snow that accumulated in the winter melts in the summer, it replenishes surface water, the ideal source for irrigation. The more snow in the winter, the more surface water will be available in the summer.

   For farmers within the Klamath Reclamation Project, under the Bureau of Reclamation’s jurisdiction, snowfall is particularly significant: Federal agencies have issued biological opinions that require certain lake elevations and river flow rates, which are affected by snowmelt into Upper Klamath Lake.

   “Upper Klamath Lake storage capacity is not great, but it’s what we depend on here,” said Greg Addington, director of the Klamath Water Users Association, which represents on-Project farmers. “It’s melting snowpack that refills the lake and provides inflow into the lake.”

   Last year was relatively dry, which meant this watering season farmers received only one third of the water they needed. This year, farmers are hoping for a cold, snowy winter.  

   Last winter

   Last winter, from November to February, there was an average of 47 percent less precipitation than average. Over four months there wasn’t even 3.5 inches of precipitation when there should have been nearly 6.5 inches.     

   “People here have been playing that game long enough that there was a sinking feeling (last winter),” Adding ton said. “Late last fall, winter, early spring, people knew there was potential for a problem.”

   Precipitation during the water year was 39 percent below normal. From Oct. 1, 2009, the beginning of the water year, to Sept. 30, Klamath Falls received 7.3 inches of precipitation, according to the National Weather Service. The historical average is 11.96 inches.

   In a dry year like that, farmers need more water for their crops. A full delivery of surface water to Basin farmers in a dry year exceeds 400,000 acre - feet, Addington said.

   The Bureau of Reclamation released a cumulative 185,000 acre-feet to on-Project irrigators because there wasn’t enough water to go around. Endangered fish got their full allotment, but refuges received nothing.  

   Next water year

   Heavy rains this weekend and a smattering of snow Sunday night upped a previous 0.05 inches of precipitation — 93 percent below normal — to 0.95   inches, 9 percent below normal. Snow and rain are in the forecast for the rest of the week.

   But less than one inch of rain hardly impacts a lake that can hold 523,700 acre-feet of water (a volume of one acre of surface area, one foot deep).

   Farmers need a few months of accumulation to melt and create inflows that satisfy the Upper Klamath Lake elevation and Klamath River flow rate requirements the Fish and   Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service have established to protect sucker and coho salmon.

   The Fish and Wildlife Service requires the lake be at 4,141.5 feet by the end of February. Through the watering season, the Bureau of Reclamation has targets from 4,141 feet in April to 4,137.5 feet in September. The lake was at 4,138.9 feet on Monday afternoon.

   “We want to start the spring with a full lake — that’s where we want to be,” Addington said. “Beyond that, we want to have a good winter so we have inf low throughout the year.”